Monday, January 30, 2012

Here are images from a press conference with Henry Perales, who told reporters in December 2011 that pro-government supporters attacked him and hit him on the head during a protest.
Elizardo Sanchez, above right, a human rights activist in Havana, organized the press conference.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

This Cuban painting shows a naked woman on a bed with slices of orange. I don't know what the artist had in mind, but maybe the woman is contemplating the men in her life.Media naranja - an orange half - is slang for one's partner or better half. Perhaps the woman is holding a letter from a boyfriend. The smaller orange slices are men who didn't measure up. And maybe some of the slices are smaller because the men weren't quite as portly as the woman. Who knows...

In recent weeks, volunteers and others have been helping to transcribe interviews that I've done over the past 18 months with a range of people, from Cuban dissidents and human rights activists to pro-government bloggers, journalists and analysts. The whole idea is to share this information with a broader audience. And toward that end, here's something new - new for this blog, at least: A Yoani Sanchez interview with English subtitles.

Sara Marta Fonseca, a member of Las Damas de Blanco. See part 1 and part 2 of interview.

Miami lawyer Santiago Alpizar, one of the organizers of "Cuba, Repression ID," a project aimed at identifying state security agents and government militants who clash with dissidents in Cuba. See video.

Friday, January 20, 2012

CubaDebate today published a statement saying that Wilman Villar had been in trouble with the law for allegedly injuring his wife, Maritza Pelegrino, and joined a dissident group after he was persuaded that such a move would help him avoid punishment for that actions.

The government statement said:

...for several days foreign news agencies, from Miami in particular, been promoting an international defamation campaign, in collusion with internal counterrevolutionary elements, which present Villar Mendoza as a supposed "maverick" who died after going on a hunger strike in prison.

In this regard, abundant evidence and testimony are available to show that he was not a "dissident" and was not on hunger strike.
Cuba mourns the death of any human being; it strongly condemns blatant manipulation by our enemies, and will dismantle this new aggression with the truth and the firmness that characterizes our people.

Villar's supporters deny the government's story - see two-page statement giving their version of events.

H/T to John McAuliff, who went through a long list of OFAC licenses that I posted the other day to sort out those organizations that received travel licenses in 2011.
This is the tentative list that he came up with, subject to confirmation from OFAC:

A.R. Savage & Son, LLC
Alex Rosenberg Fine Art
ALTA
Alumnae Association of Smith College
American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba
American Museum of Natural History
American Shipping and Chartering
Americana Marine Services
Americas Media Initiative
Amherst College

Cuban dissident Wilman Villar died on Jan. 19 after a hunger strike that lasted more than 50 days. Villar was protesting a four-year sentence he received for his anti-government activities and launched the hunger strike from his jail cell. See video of the street protest that landed him in prison.

Villar was born in Palma Soriano in eastern Cuba on May 30, 1980.
See more photos after the jump.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

I never knew his name, so I just called him "the Barrel Guy."
He was a Havana street performer who specialized in spinning barrels, those 55-gallon drums that you see at gas stations, repair shops and other spots.
He didn't just spin them around and that was it. He'd fling the barrel along the ground, sending spinning on edge out in front of him. It would travel in a circle, six or eight feet away before returning to the performer's hand like some strange Cupet boomerang.
Sometimes he'd get two barrels going at once. They spin around madly while he stood there nonchalant, as if those barrels didn't belong to him.
The Barrel Guy knew how to draw a crowd. I wonder if he's still at it.
Link: More photos and video of Havana's Amazing Barrel Guy.

Cuban journalist and author Marta Rojas narrates her family history while going through a digital photo album showing pictures from her past.
Rojas was a reporter for Bohemia magazine when Fidel Castro and his followers attacked the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953. She reported on that and other events in the early days of the Cuban revolution.
Rojas is known for her coverage of Castro's October 1953 trial, in which the Cuban leader declared, "History will absolve me."
She has worked for Granma, the newspaper of Cuba's Communist Party, since it was founded in 1965. She is also the author of many books, including El juicio del Moncada, El Columpio de Rey Spencer (Rey Spencer's Swing), Santa Lujuria (Holy Lust) and El Equipaje Amarillo (The Yellow Suitcase), is set in the 19th century and traces Chinese immigration to Cuba.

Earlier this month, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control released a 2011 database containing information about 2,886 license holders in response to a Freedom of Information Act request that I filed in October.
I posted some initial information about the database on Jan. 10, a map showing locations of license holders and some details on the 431 Cuba license holders.
For those of you interested in the entire Excel file that OFAC sent me, you may view and download it here.OFAC evidently redacted the names of a number of organizations who were granted people-to-people licenses. I am trying to figure out what companies and why. Feel free to weigh in if you have any insight into this.

An independent journalist named Ruben Carty Lowe sent me a letter complaining about the human rights situation in Cuba. He urged activists outside the island to step up their support for democracy advocates. And he criticized high Internet costs.
Carty said Internet rates at hotels in Cuba range from six to 10 convertible pesos, roughly $6 to $10 U.S. He called those prices "abusive," saying:

...these prices are only for tourists who have access to the hotels...We request for humanitarian aid, technical assistance and technological resources to carry on our work.

Carty attached several photos to his email, including the two that I am posting here.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Kudos to CaféFuerte, which published a sentencing document today that gives details of Cuba's case against American subcontractor Alan Gross. Download 15 MB document here.

CaféFuerte's story by journalist Wilfredo Cancio Isla says that Cuban intelligence agents knew of Gross's work since mid-2004 when he traveled to Cuba to deliver a video camera and medicine to José Manuel Collera Vento, former head of the Freemasons fraternal organization in Cuba.

The document said Gross delivered the package on behalf of Marc Wachtenheim, director of the Cuba Development Initiative at the Pan American Development Foundation, or PADF, which receives funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

What PADF didn't realize is that Collera Vento was secretly working as an agent for the Cuban government. To learn more about Collera Vento, see this Cuba Money Project video interview - part 1 - and part 2.

Also cited in the sentencing document was another government agent, Raúl Capote. See interview with Capote here.